She was nearly the first woman ever to attend Harvard Law School — though it did not then admit women, Schlafly’s Harvard professors found her so brilliant that they offered to make an exception for her. (She declined.) Instead, she married, raised six amazingly accomplished children and later attended law school in her 50s.

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Schlafly noticed that the Equal Rights Amendment was sailing toward ratification without anyone noticing. When Schlafly took up her battle against the ERA, the Senate had passed it by 84 to 8. The House had passed it by 354 to 23.

“The ERA was written in to both the Republican and Democratic Party platforms.

“Thirty states had approved it in the first year after it was sent to the states for ratification.

“Only eight more states were needed.

But the ERA had not yet faced Phyllis Schlafly. Over the next eight years, thanks to Schlafly and her Eagle Forum, only five states ratified it — but five other states rescinded their earlier ratifications.

She ran that campaign around a kitchen table, using index cards and a rotary phone — no computers or faxes — while raising six children then going to law school.